Nimbus Communications today announces the launch of Showtime – its Home Video entertainment Business. The venture will entail rental and sale of Home Entertainment content in formats like DVDs, VCDs, Game CDs and other allied products. Showtime stores are currently operational in Bandra, Lokhandwala, Malad & Chembur. In addition, there are 8 distribution centres across Mumbai to ensure prompt delivery anywhere in the city.

Showtime combines all the features of a global standard video entertainment service. It promises a unique in-store experience through its high quality ambience & highly trained personnel who have the specialised ability to make customised recommendations to their customers.

It is supported by an ever growing representation of titles (it currently has access to over 16,000 )across all genres. The other first-of-its-kind feature is that a customer of Showtime can order a movie through a channel of his/her choice – phone-ins, walk into a store, through the internet, sms & even through the delivery boy who fulfils the order at the doorstep.

The service delivers anywhere in the city at the time range preferred by the customer. Also, it is the only service in India that combines rental & sale of DVD’s, VCD’s & other allied products, all delivered promptly at home. To top it, all these features come at a competitive pricing package to the consumer, who does not have to pay any registration fee or deposit to avail of the service.

Commenting on the launch, Sanjay Sharma, COO, Showtime, said, “The home entertainment business is set to grow exponentially. With Showtime we aim at a more organised approach to the Home Entertainment business in India. We are confident that with the emergence of organized retail, such as ours, this space will witness significant changes in customer habits as also much higher levels of customer delight. Better quality viewing, prompt delivery, competitive pricing, a wider array of products and superior service standards will all comprise the critical success factors of the business”.

Showtime has succeeded in obtaining rental licenses from major distributors and plans to create a foothold over 120 cities in its next stage of expansion.

NIMBUS Communications is entering the home-video business through its wholly-owned subsidiary under the Showtime brand. The company has earmarked investments worth Rs 350 crore for the next three years. The subsidiary would be involved in selling home entertainment content in various formats, including CDs, DVDs and other additional products. Showtime COO Sanjay Sharma said: “We will position ourselves as an integrated one-stop shop for home entertainment content. We would be selling the content in different formats online. In addition, we are planning to have vast offline retail presence.” Showtime will test-pilot its operations through four stores in Mumbai. The company plans to expand it to 40 cities in this calendar year and take it up to 120 cities by 2010. “Initially, we have started with four stores which are completely company-owned and managed. We are in the process of finalising our retail strategy to expand to the other 40 cities by this year. We are looking at options like malls and multiplexes, among others, to attract potential customers,” he said. Mr Sharma added that the company currently has access to about 16,000 titles to offer to the consumers. Showtime plans to initially tap customers with its rental service and believes that its competitive prices will motivate these captive households to shift to buying these titles. “In the first year, we expect our turnover to cross Rs 50 crore which we expect will go up to Rs 150 crore. Initially, we expect consumers to browse through the titles online and transactions would happen offline,” he added. Pricewaterhouse Coopers believes that nearly 80% of the revenues in the industry come from rental services, which is likely to go down to about 25% in 2012. The fragmented home-video business is slowly becoming organised with players like Moser baer, Big Flicks and Seventymm entering the space. According to the latest Ficci PwC report, home-video entertainment industry is pegged at Rs 75O crore and is expected to touch the Rs 1,500-crore mark in the next five years. PwC also believes that currently home-video penetration is just 10% of the overall pay television homes and is expected to increase to 75% of the total TV households.

Nimbus is all set to foray into the rental DVD market and plans to set up 125 DVD stores across 69 cities in India within a few months. They have already launched their website www.showtimevideo.co.in and 4 stores in the Mumbai metro wherein an end consumer can enter a store and rent or purchase DVD’s or VCD’s. The store would be a bit relevant to a small “Planet M” store, but there you can’t rent anything. Other than visiting the store, the consumer has the option of renting the DVD or the VCD by calling a 40164444. A representative from Nimbus will then be sent to deliver the DVD or VCD and might also up sell another DVD or VCD to the consumer. He will then collect the payment and the DVD or VCD the next day.

FREE home delivery within one hour, or the stuff is free! That’s not about your pizza, but the DVD you wanted to rent. The fledgling online movie-rental business in India is adopting the pizza delivery model to build a critical mass as well as brand recall.

Delhi-based MovieMart offers free home delivery all over Delhi and NCR, fastest delivery and claims that there are no pirated DVDs. “We are pitching our home delivery at 10 minutes to a maximum of two hours,” says MovieMart CEO Rahul Mansharmani.

Players in the industry feel that the superfast home-delivery model is the best route to grab a critical mass. Nimbus Communications, which has announced a Rs 150-crore big bang entry into the DVD rental market with presence in 69 cities across the country, is harping on the 30-minute flat delivery deadline to steal a march over competition. Existing players like Reliance ADAG-backed Bigflicks and the first mover in India Seventymm are feeling the heat, but plan to stick to their within-a-day delivery models.